382 AIM AND PROGRESS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE 



and I were led on physiological grounds to investigations 

 having especial reference to the conservation of force. 



As regards the phenomena of inorganic nature all 

 doubts have long since been laid to rest respecting the 

 principles of the method. It was apparent that these 

 phenomena had fixed laws, and examples enough were 

 already known to make the finding of such laws probable. 



In consequence, however, of the greater complexity of 

 the vital processes, their connection with mental action, 

 and the unmistakable evidence of adaptability to a pur- 

 pose which organic structures exhibit, the existence of a 

 settled conformity to law might well appear doubtful, and, 

 in fact, physiology has always had to encounter this 

 fundamental question : are all vital processes absolutely 

 conformable to law ? Or is there, perhaps, a range of 

 greater or less magnitude within which an exception 

 prevails r More or less obscured by words, the view of 

 Paracelsus, Helmont, and Stahl, has been, and is at 

 present, held, particularly outside Germany, that there 

 exists a soul of life (" Lebensseele ") directing the organic 

 processes which is endowed more or less with conscious- 

 ness like the soul of man. The influence of the inorganic 

 forces of nature on the organism was still recognised 

 on the assumption that the soul of life only exercises 

 power over matter by means of the physical and chemical 

 forces of matter itself; so that without this aid it could 

 accomplish nothing, but that it possessed the faculty of 

 suspending or permitting the operation of the forces 

 at pleasure. 



After death, when no longer subject to the control of 

 the soul of life or vital force, it was these very chemical 

 forces of organic matter which brought about decomposi- 

 tion. In short, through all the different modes of ex- 

 pressing it, whether it was termed the Archaus, the 

 anima inscia, or the vital force and the restorative 



